Sony Restores PlayStation Network Service

The gaming network was the victim of a massive Internet security breach in April.

TOKYO – Sony announced Tuesday that it will bring its PlayStation Network back online by this weekend in America, Europe and parts of Asia, although not yet in Japan.

“We have been conducting additional testing and further security verification of our commerce functions in order to bring the PlayStation Network completely back online…” said Kazuo Hirai, executive deputy president, in a statement.

The Tokyo-based electronics to entertainment conglomerate has been struggling to restore its online services since it was the victim in April of one of the biggest ever Internet security breaches, resulting in personal data of over 100 million accounts being compromised.

Users of the PSN will once again be able to download and play games online, while the Qriocity music service for the PlayStation, PlayStation Portable and Vaio computers will be partially restored.

The company -- which announced a third straight year of red ink last week -- said that the date of full resumption of the PSN in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, as well as restoration of full functionality on Qriocity, are yet to be finalized.